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BYWAYS
IN
BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER·LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
All rights reserved
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BYWAYS
IN
BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY
BY
WALTER JOHNSON, F.G.S.
AUTHOR OF FOLK-MEMORY, ETC.
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1912
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Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
{v}
PREFACE
The following chapters, though superficially presenting the appearanceof disconnected essays, really possess a strong bond of continuity.Running through the whole, implied, where not actually expressed, willbe found an insistence on the principle which, in a former work, Iventured to call folk-memory. This folk-memory—unconsciously, for themost part, but sometimes with open ceremony—keeps alive those popularbeliefs and practices which are individually called survivals. With someof these legacies from the past the present volume deals.
To a large extent the studies are connected with the church andchurchyard. The sections which treat of pagan sites, orientation, andburial customs, embody the results of observations relating to somehundreds of buildings in all parts of England and Wales. The chapters on“The Folk-Lore of the Cardinal Points” and “The Labour’d Ox” partially,at least, break virgin soil. In “The Churchyard Yew” are set downinferences drawn from many years of investigation, the literary side ofwhich has been rendered difficult by the existence, in various modernworks, of unfounded statements and hypothetical references. Theremainder of the book treats of somewhat more familiar themes, though itis hoped that fresh outlooks are suggested.
Since some of the matters here brought forward have been, and indeedstill are, provocative of keen, and even heated controversy, toanticipate agreement with all the conclusions would be sheer folly.Nevertheless, it may be claimed that the facts collected have beencarefully sifted, the references conscientiously verified, and theopposing theories honestly prese